Before anyone writes PR in outrage over Buck’s use of the phrase “Xmas,” read what one Florida historian says about how much “Christ” has historically been in Christmas.

Dr. Susan Parker of St. Augustine (aka, the nation’s oldest city) said the recent controversy is not only just that – recent – but didn’t exist for people with their hearts in the right place.

People writing letters and reports written centuries ago in Spanish colonial St. Augustine as well as many other parts of the world used the “X” substitute all the time.

Documents conserved in Spain, Cuba, Mexico and the United States reveal this practice.

It was just one more abbreviation in a time when almost everything was hand written. Fingers wearied as the pages of writing piled up and any way to shorten the task was welcome. Certainly the Franciscan friars, writing in their small rooms…did not think of using the X as taking Christ out of the word.

That would have been unthinkable. Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, the missionary friars shortened the Spanish word “Cristianos” as they wrote about the “indios Xianos” (Christian Indians) in Florida.

The X showed up also in the name Cristobal (Spanish for Christopher), too. We do not know if someone of that name felt slighted when it appeared as Xobal (that is, if Xobal could read).

Taking the Christ out of the word for Christmas was no concern, for the Spanish word for the holy day is “Navidad.”

So happy holidays and merry Xmas. Yeah, I said it.